Unmake

by Lauren Harris

  The car pulled to a halt at the end of the block, and parked. No one got out.

  I dropped the nylon bag, nosing it against the SUV’s back wheel, and shimmied toward the rear of the vehicle. I could sit up a little more comfortably here, and lean out to peer at the car.

  It was a Subaru, dark—probably blue, though I still didn’t get color analogs quite right in this form. With the glare of sunlight, I couldn’t see through the back windows, but the man at the wheel had that semi-skeletal Guild look about him.

  Another car was coming. I tensed my muscles, heart suddenly pounding in my throat. Every sense went laser-focused, and my pulse seemed to be beating a mantra in my ears: Helena, Helena. Helena.

  My claws dug into the asphalt.

  A massive white SUV swung around the corner and slammed to a halt beside the car. The back doors opened.

  On the row-house side, Officer Blue Eyes stepped out, gaze slashing through the air, searching. A narrow black man stepped from the other side, his eyes equally wary. Eric stood from the car’s back seat, his gaze jumping up to the rooftops.

  There was an instant of hesitation. An instant when I thought she wasn’t here—the Guild had been tricky enough to fool the vigilantes. She wasn’t in the car.

  Then I saw a familiar profile. Nobody had a nose like Helena, that inward swoop of bridge, the slight upturn at the end. I’d run my fingertip down it, pretending to launch off the end like a halfpipe. Helena. God, I almost didn’t want her to be here. She’d be safe from the vigilantes.

  But not safe from the Guild.

  The instant was over. I howled a warning, and Eric’s head snapped up, just as the first crack of gunshot broke the greasy haze of sunlight with a fever-red mandala.

  Eric gave a shout, and a blue shield sprang to life over Helena’s head. Officer Blue Eyes ducked around the back of the SUV, his skin alight with white spell-tattoos.

  Enforcers spilled from the cars, and bright points of mandalas flared from the row-house roof. Helena and Randolph ducked into the dark car, which skidded into motion before they’d even closed the door.

  A black sedan shot around the corner, and with a fantastic jolt, smashed into Helena’s car.

  More cars were behind it, men and women in a motley assortment of tactical gear and hunting fatigues swarming into the street, guns and spells flaring bright.

  Randolph staggered from the car, sending out a series of pink mandalas, even as he whipped out his gun and shouted for the Enforcers to form up.

  Helena was right behind him, her stance low and ready, fingers wide and teeth bared as if she was ready to tear someone apart with her bare hands.

  Suddenly, there was so much magic in the air, I had to squint. Randolph and Eric and Blue Eyes and two other Enforcers had their shields going in an overlapping burn of color. Spells and bullets sparked off them, and judging by the grim looks on their faces, it was an incredible amount of firepower they were taking on.

  Boots hit the ground beside my car, right on the sidewalk, and then a woman was running. Armored in mandalas, she pelted straight for the Enforcers with a heart-shattering scream.

  Weaponless, except for magic. And there was one massive, green-gold spell swelling with power in her hands.

  I bolted from beneath the car. Muscles singing, heart pumping, I was on her heels in a second. I launched into the air, hit her back with a heavy slam. My teeth were in the spell before she hit the asphalt, tearing at the symbols and links, feeling it like an electric fence sparking and shocking along my gums.

  Just not in time.

  The spell went off, exploding down through the woman’s chest. It slammed into me, tearing through my vision like a yellow crack of lightning.

  And then, suddenly as a thought…

  Black.

  Chapter 31

  helena

  There’s a particular sound cars make when they hit something living. A low, crunching whump, like a boot crushing an empty milk jug. When the cars are moving fast, there’s a screech of tires, maybe the sound of a horn blaring.

  When it’s the living thing slamming into the parked car, all there is afterward is silence. At least, that’s how it seemed to me. One second, the great black wolf was on the vigilante’s back, tearing at that spell. Then the charge went off. A lightning flash of sickening yellow light.

  Then the sound, and Jaesung’s massive shape, lying beneath the crunched-in door of an SUV. The vigilante’s back was an open crater. She was surrounded by sparks of residual magic, crackling off into the air. And Jaesung was still.

  I ducked between Eric and Enforcer Randolph and lunged into the street. My shield was weak, hampered by the temporary dampener drawn on my arm. I didn’t care. If Jaesung didn’t rise again, I hoped the vigilantes would go ahead and put a bullet in me. They would have to, or I would find a way to hunt them all down. Even without magic, they would never stop me.

  A spell ricocheted off my shield, sending me staggering sideways. I gritted my teeth and shoved on, slamming into the front of the car beside Jaesung. I dropped to my knees, already reaching for his lupine head.

  His muzzle was sticky, blood and saliva oozing out. A pink and black tongue slid lifelessly onto my hand.

  “No,” I whispered. “No, no...”

  Hot breath washed over my fingers. I sucked in a gulp of air and gave a sob of relief. “Jaesung! Jae!” I ran my hands through his ruff, down his spine the way I’d seen Krista or Sanadzi do when we went to rescue dogs that had been hit by cars. I didn’t feel any obvious breaks there, or in his skull. He was too heavy to move, but he was stirring.

  A low whine made its way from his throat. “Jaesung!” I shouted. “Come on, baby. Get up. Come on—I need you to move.” His eyes opened. With a second groaning whine, he struggled to get his feet under him.

  “Okay,” I said. “Okay, come on. That’s good. I need you to-“

  A javelin of red magic crashing through the car window above us. Glass exploded out. I threw my arms over my neck, hunching to protect Jaesung’s head. My shield shuddered and collapsed, and I felt the vigilante’s crimson power shock back into my mandala, scalding me.

  Boots skidded in the pebbled glass beside us. I looked up in time to see a brilliant white shield slam into place, just as the second arrow of red spellfire lanced through the window. De Vries crouched, seizing my arm. “Get up!”

  I managed to grab the orange collar around Jaesung’s neck as De Vries heaved me upright, dragging him to all four paws. He scrabbled on the asphalt, but shook himself with no apparent sign of broken bones, and—absurdly—reached his muzzle down to snag a black bag from behind the SUV’s front tire.

  Then De Vries shoved his face close to mine, hand seizing the back of my neck in a vice-like grip. “Get cover!” he snarled, eyes burning lightning-bright. Then he hurled me into a run toward the end of the block.

  Jaesung was at my heels, running a little unsteadily, but keeping right there with me. I glanced back only once, and the white shield moved behind us, taking hit after hit from the remaining vigilantes. Randolph and Eric were still fighting, too caught up in smashing vigilante shields to watch me.

  We reached the end of the block and swung a right at the cross-street, just as a man leapt from the fire escape above. I dropped into a forward roll and let momentum carry me up. I might not have my magic right now, but I still knew how to fucking fight. I came up fast and low, practically diving into his solar plexus, elbow first.

  His air exploded out, and he fell back, barely catching himself on the fire escape ladder. The spell primed on a heavy black ring fritzed. I kept running.

  We were out of De Vries’s line of sight. Our shield was gone, and it wouldn’t take long for the vigilante to summon up another spell. I ducked right and jagged left, trying to throw off his aim. Jaesung pulled ahead on long black legs, barked a warning, and darted sideways into an alley.

  That was when things got absurd.

  I swung around the corner to find Kris
ta, pink-faced and out of breath, a loaded dart-pistol held steadily toward the mouth of the alley. I ducked against the brick wall an instant before she fired.

  There was a choking cry behind me. I twisted around against the brick and saw my vigilante friend pawing at his throat. It would take a minute or two for the dart to take effect. I think he realized this at the same time I did. I hurled myself onto him, even as he sent power into the tattoos on his arms.

  He was thin as a rake, wiry and scrappy. I fought to get him in a hold, but he was all elbows and tough muscle. Finally, somehow, I got my hand around his throat and choked off his carotid arteries. He fell back against the wall, nails digging into my arms, ripping at my hair.

  Finally, his arms fell, his legs buckled, and he slid roughly down the wall, taking us both to the ground. I held on a few more seconds, making sure he was out.

  The blood rushed hard in my ears, so loud I could hardly hear the sound of the continuing fight not a block away. Then Krista was grabbing me, pulling me into her arms. She was sobbing, and shaking me, and babbling so fast I could barely understand what she was saying.

  “Krista?” I wheezed. “What the fuck?”

  “She’ll explain later.” Jaesung was there, human again, and looking exhausted in a wrinkled tee and sweats. The whole left side of his face was bruised. “We’ve got to go.”

  His hands were shaking, hard, but he pulled me into his arms. For a moment, I stood utterly stiff.

  I hadn’t expected to feel him hug me ever again. Let alone today. It was almost too much to process.

  “Move-time, guys,” Krista said. “I’m not sure our friend is totally unconscious yet...”

  Jaesung released me, only to grab my hand. “Come on. While the vigilantes have the Guild distracted. We have to go.”

  “Go...” I said, stupidly. There wasn’t anywhere we could go. Not anymore.

  “We have two tickets to Korea,” he said, dark gaze burning down into mine.

  My brain felt slow, sluggish. “I don’t...I don’t have a passport.”

  “Deepti took care of it,” he said. “Come on. We can’t let them catch up—Eric’s got his neck on the line for us.”

  A dozen emotions were coursing through me, crowding out my ability to concentrate on anything except the fact that Jaesung was here, and Krista was here, and they were...apparently rescuing me.

  Only, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be rescued. Could I really run from all this? Jaesung had offered to come with me, but could I really make him run forever, for me? What if Eric was right and there was hope for the Guild? Maybe they needed someone like me to come in and shake things up. Even if I died, I might be the start of change. My power—terrible though they claimed it could be—might eventually protect people after all. By changing minds, and changing rules.

  But God, I wanted to keep him with me. And Krista. And everyone.

  A shudder ran down through me. I turned my palm in Jaesung’s and gripped his hand. Tight.

  “I know where we can go,” I said.

  It took me a block or so to get my bearings, but we weren’t far. Luckily, Baltimore has enough tall landmarks that all I had to do was find the skyline and put it to my back, and in five minutes, we were pelting up a manicured street, lined with nice cars and trees in wrought-iron cages. I ducked past one of these and climbed the stairs, praying I still had enough magic to cast one little mandala.

  Sliding aside the doorbell, I revealed the key pad and punched in the numbers. Then, shaking out my hands, I took the doorknob.

  Jaesung sucked in a breath. I grimaced as a current of magic sizzled into me, making every muscle seize like it had been touched with an electrical wire.

  “What?” Krista said, unable to see the massive pink mandala that flared to life around the doorknob. “Is it magic?”

  “Hel,” Jaesung said. “Where is this?”

  I didn’t answer. I was calling up an image in my mind—that coin-sized mandala glowing beneath De Vries’s shirt. I watched it come to life in my mind, the order of its circuit, the shape of every glyph, the way it had looked fitting into the center of that locking mandala.

  It flickered, faint and turquoise inside the pink mandala, and... Nothing happened. I was starting to sweat, every muscle aching as it tensed more and more, the little lines of pink magic rushing over my body in search of the key that wasn’t there.

  “Helena, what the fuck is going on?”

  I pushed, felt the temporary tattoo burn on my wrist, fighting the amount of power I needed, even to keep that tiny mandala from flickering. I heard my own voice, strangled and rising, as I battled for power. Sweat rolled down my cheek.

  Jaesung grabbed my arm, as if to pull me away from the door. His shout of pain sent my brain into panic. I shoved power with all my might, felt my hand sear like a thousand cigarette burns. The turquoise mandala went bright in the center of the lock circle, which brightened, and spun.

  All my muscles went slack, and I staggered against the door, Jaesung right at my back. I turned the knob, opening the front door of Randolph’s apartment.

  “Hel, this isn’t-”

  I turned around, cutting him off. I had to do this now, or I would never be able to. “You guys need to go.”

  His brows drew together, his whole expression confused, as if I was saying words that didn’t fit together in any sort of meaning.

  “They’re going to execute you,” he said. “You’re coming with us.”

  I swallowed, firming up my mouth. “They might not.”

  “That’s not good enough odds.”

  He was reaching for me again. I didn’t let him. I stepped backwards, over the threshold. “If I run, they definitely will execute me. And you.” I shook my head, gaze locked on his near-black eyes. Those eyes I had looked into a thousand times, and seen the one thing I had always wanted. “I won’t risk your life.”

  There was no confusion in his face now. Only fear, and anger, and determination. “Shouldn’t that be my choice?”

  Maybe. That would be fair, to let him decide his own future. But I couldn’t be fair. He didn’t deserve the kind of fairness that risked his life. Not after everything he’d done to change mine for the better.

  But it hurt. God, it hurt. Seeing him looking at me like that, begging to help me, to save me, to keep us together, even if it meant we would be on the run the rest of our lives. He was willing to do that. And I didn’t have the tools to process being loved that much.

  Gratitude swelled inside me. My eyes stung, and an absurd kind of laugh bubbled up my throat.

  “Thank you.”

  Jaesung’s mouth opened, then closed. He shook his head. “I don’t...”

  “For loving me,” I explained. “For giving me a home.”

  I saw it hit. Saw the moment he realized what I was doing. And I hated the change in his eyes. He shook his head, stepping forward, reaching for me.

  “No. This is not goodbye,” he said. “Stop it.”

  I backed away, feeling the edge of the doormat on my heels. “If I can, if I get through and you forgive me. I want to come back to you.”

  Krista surged past Jaesung, and suddenly, I was in her big, tattooed arms. She nearly pulled me back onto the stoop with the force of her hug. “Of course you can come home. Please, Hel. Please...you can run now. Please just come with us.” I hugged her back.

  “You’ve been the best friend I could have ever had,” I said. “I didn’t know people as fantastic as you existed.”

  She let out a sob into my hair. “Please...”

  Jaesung seemed to be losing his grip on sanity. He was looking around the foyer, the front stoop, as if there might be an explanation for what I was thinking. Or maybe he was looking for something he could use to knock me out.

  Krista let me go, reaching for the wrought iron railing to steady herself. Jaesung shook his head.

  “This isn’t fair,” he said.

  “I know.” We watched each other for a moment, and then the
sound of car engines echoed down the end of the street. I swallowed. “I know,” I repeated. “But I love you too much to play fair. You’d better go.”

  Jaesung’s hands were suddenly on my face, and then his mouth was on mine. I’d almost forgotten the heat of it, and the way he tasted, even beneath the metallic tang of blood. His hands were warm, and strong, and he was kissing me like it might change my mind. I had to hold onto the door frame to keep from being pushed backward through the door.

  Everything I’d been holding back seemed to rush into my heart all at once. I choked back a sob, felt tears trickle down my cheek, collecting where his fingers still held my jaw. He broke the kiss, but still held my face tight in his hands, pressing his forehead to mine.

  “I’ll stay,” he said, and stepped closer into me, trying to push through the door. “I’ll come with you. I’ll turn myself in.”

  I laughed out a sob, and blinked up at him. This man, who I loved. Who loved me enough to give up everything. There would never be another Jaesung Park. I would never, ever love anyone more than I loved him in that moment.

  “I love you,” I whispered. I relaxed my grip on the doorframe, and felt him relax, prepared to walk inside. Then I caught his heel with my foot, and shoved him out the door.

  The last thing I saw was his wide, dark eyes as he flailed, caught by a gasping Krista, before I slammed the door shut.

  Chapter 32

  jaesung

  I didn’t leave.

  I sat on the steps, head in my hands, and let the rest of the world go out of focus. Krista said something about a text from Eric, and getting the car. I didn’t have a response, so I didn’t say anything. I stared at the ragged toe of my sneaker, which had a streak of blood on it. Mine, possibly. Or the dead vigilante.

  I could have died. If she’d twisted over, I’d have caught the blast coming out of her chest. This information slid into my mind without a ripple. It didn’t matter.

  Car doors closed ahead of me. I didn’t look up. Tiny green sprouts had pushed up between the bricks, their leaves small enough to fit on the end of a pin. They’d survived, somehow. Eked out a place between the cracks of a structure that wasn’t made for them. Had they made those cracks themselves, or had they simply taken the opportunity when it arrived?